With the summer season expected to be as hot as last year, we will probably have in Arkansas a drought for the fourth year in a row, and I anticipate that we are headed for a repeat of last year's overheated oil prices, the highest since 1990. In fact, we have already seen indications that the price is growing steadily. 

   A recent national survey shows that the price of gasoline has skyrocketed 17 cents in the last 4 weeks alone, bringing the national average to $1.82 a gallon.  These prices are unjustified, and our response to bring these prices down must be immediate.  I call on the President and the administration to tell OPEC to increase their levels of oil production, which they cut as recently as March by a million barrels a day.  It is wrong that a handful of foreign countries can get together and have a lot to do with dictating the price of gasoline at the pumps in south Arkansas.

   Our reliance on foreign oil has been steadily increasing. We must concentrate on increasing our domestic energy supplies and strengthening our energy infrastructure, and we must guard consumers against potential price gouging by the big oil companies.

   Now, the President, as recent as late last week, said that we needed a tax cut to pay for gasoline.  Now, Mr. President, I have a problem with my constituents paying $2 or $3 a 
gallon for gasoline. Yes, Mr. President, we need a tax cut.  We need a tax cut for working families to help them make ends meet, to help them pay for child care and, yes, to help them send a child to college.  We do not need a tax cut to pay for gas.  We need to bring the prices of gas back down. 

   America's economic prosperity and national security have come to depend on the availability of reliable, affordable energy.  We need a balanced, long-term energy policy, not one built for the past, as the administration is putting forth.  We need a proactive energy policy for the future, one that helps consumers by increasing energy production while reducing energy demand; one that stresses the importance of conservation, building more energy-efficient products and developing more renewable and alternative fuel sources, the kind that can create new markets for our struggling farm families in south Arkansas. 

   The production, generation, and distribution aspects must all be done with greater efficiency. Research and development in new energy technologies that increase conservation in all areas are imperative.  In addition, we need to expand other energy sources, such as wind, solar and hydroelectric.  Renewable energy sources may not be an immediate answer to our energy crisis, but they are certainly important for the long term as fossil fuel sources continue to diminish.  These emerging technologies will need Federal support if we are to finally achieve energy independence. 

   We must look at all available options to solve this complicated crisis.  But whatever we do, we must guarantee that drivers in south Arkansas and all across America will pay less when they fill up. 
   Mr. Speaker, I yield back to the gentleman from New Jersey.